Kukla's Korner Hockey

April 23, 1950 • In the first Game Seven overtime in Final history, left winger Pete Babando, assisted by center George Gee at 8:31 of the second overtime period, gave the Detroit Red Wings a 4-3 win and the 1950 Stanley Cup title.

Four years later, another Detroit left winger, Tony Leswick, repeated Babando’s overtime feat in Game Seven of the 1954 Final. Since then, no player has scored the Cup-winning goal in overtime in the seventh and deciding game of the Final.

April 23, 1996 • The Tampa Bay Lightning established an all-time NHL playoff attendance record as 28,183 fans filled the ThunderDome for Game Four of Tampa Bay’s Eastern Conference Quarter-final series with the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers won 4-1, tying the series at two wins apiece. They went on to win the series in six.

April 23, 1997 • Wayne Gretzky scored a natural hat trick in the second period to lead the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers at Madison Square Garden, opening up a 3-1 series lead. Gretzky scored three goals in a 6:23 span to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead. The hat trick was his ninth in the postseason, extending his playoff record.
______________________*information courtesy of NHL media